Key facts about Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle was a French-American artist. She was born in 1930 near Paris, France and died in 2002.
She made sculptures, paintings, films and also wrote and illustrated books.
Niki is well-known for using bright and vibrant colours in her artwork. She made art that was playful and larger than life.
Niki found that art made her feel good and gave her a way to express her feelings.
She did not go to an art school to learn to be an artist, she taught herself.
Niki liked to try new materials and ways of making art.
Watch: Who was Niki de Saint Phalle?
Learn more about the life and art of Niki de Saint Phalle
Narrator: Niki de Saint Phalle was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris, in 1930.
She was inspired by many different artists' work that she saw around Europe like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.
Bold colours, strong lines and simple shapes gave Niki's paintings a clear and easy to recognise style.
Later in her career, Niki created the Nanas.
These were bright, life sized statues of women in different poses.
They were made from a range of materials including plaster and papier-mâché applied over chicken wire shapes.
They explore how women and their roles are seen in society and what it meant for Niki to be a woman and a mother.
Niki created sculptures for houses, gardens and even parks.
The Tarot Garden was her largest project.
Unfortunately, Niki didn't finish it before she died.
But her family and friends did finish the Tarot Garden sculptures showing that her work went on to challenge people to think differently.
Examples of Niki de Saint Phalle's sculptures
Image caption, In 1965, Niki de Saint Phalle began to make large sculptures called Nanas. She wanted to make sculptures that showed women being happy and joyful. The sculptures are curvy and colourful and they often look like they are dancing or celebrating. Niki wanted her sculptures of women to be larger than life and powerful. Image: © Niki de Saint Phalle Charitable Art Foundation / ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2023.
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Watch: Make a Niki de Saint Phalle sculpture
Laura Hopkinson: One of the many talents of artist Niki de Saint Phalle, was to create brilliantly colourful and curvy sculptures called Nanas.
I'm going to take inspiration from Niki De Saint Phalle to make my own colourful papier mache sculpture.
Why not join me? You will need: A balloon, flour, water and a bowl (PVA glue or wallpaper paste would work too), old paper, paints, paint brushes and your imagination!
I've sketched an idea here in my sketchbook. Time to pop on an apron or old shirt!
I'm going to use a balloon to help build my sculpture.
I've made this papier mache paste by mixing flour and water together. But you could also use watered down wallpaper paste or PVA glue. You'll need to check with a grown up on how to protect your surface too.
Now I'm going to take some of these strips of scrap paper and dip them into the paste make sure they're really well covered - and use this to cover part of my balloon.
The layers need to overlap so the whole balloon is covered.
Then we leave it to dry overnight until it's completely dried out, like this one. Ask an adult to help you find somewhereto leave it, it will be sticky!
Now for the fun part! I'm left with a brilliant 3D shape!
I'm going to paint a layer of white paint first.
Once that dries I'll paint over it with vibrant colours.
A bright, beautiful 3D sculpture in the style of Niki de Saint Phalle!
Activity
Niki de Saint Phalle and another artist called Jean Tinguely, created 16 sculptures for a fountain in Paris, France. It is known as the Stravinsky Fountain because each sculpture represents a theme or character that can be found in composer Igor Stravinsky’s music.
Did you know?
- Niki de Saint Phalle's name at birth was Catherine Marie-Agnés Fal de Saint.
- Her mother was American and her father was French.
- Niki spent part of her childhood in New York, USA.
- Her first job was as a fashion model in the 1950s.
- The Nanas were first inspired by a friend of Niki's who was pregnant.
Niki de Saint Phalle factfile
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